Time switch



Oct. 16, 1934. w G, SNYDER, JR 1,977,296

TIME SWITCH Filed Sept. 24, l952 FIG 4 FIGS Mae/15 Patented Oct. 16, 1934 ugarorifice;

1 "4 Claims (01. 200-36) I This inventionrelates to devices used for the purpose of controlling any other device in synchronism with time. a i .Its primary object is toprovide for the mak- 5 ing or breaking of electric circuitsat any pre- 1 '10 drawing.

I Essentially the invention is a, simple mechanism for-controlling two operations, such as for closing andythen opening anelectrical circuitaiter any desirediinterval of timepbypro- 16 viding a group of.electrical;contactors for an entire-period, suchas; for a day 0124 hours, of anumber determined' by-the shortest division of the period it is desired betweemoperations, and then, ameans i011 selecting-a certain one of 20 these contactorsfor the closing operation, and a' certain other one for the opening operation. A special relay is provided to facilitate the, clos ing and opening, operations by means of electromagnets controlled thru the electrical contactors, and further, to, insure a unidirectional cycle of operation of the switch.

More-specifically, and in detail, the arrangement and functions of the component parts of the invention will be discussed.

One form of the;,invention is illustrated in the accompanying drawing, in which: Figure 1 ,is' aqplan view of the arrangement of the contactors. i-Figure 2 isa frontal view of thesup- ..porting -st ructure,and, certain dials,. with portions of them, shown as cut away to better illustrate the; relationg of the contactors in back ;of them; FigureB is;,a view in perspective of one of the contactors before assembly on &;PIOPI shafts, Figure 4 is a plan view of the special relay. Figure 5 is a view of the relayas presented from the right in Figure 4, and is intended toshow primarily the construction and mounting of the relay;armature so the intervening electromagnet and structure do not appear. Figure 6 is a view of the relay structure as it would appear from the bottomin Figure'4.

Reference to Figure 1 will show that three identical groups of electrical contactors are provided, each group being arranged as ahelix about a shaft, and with theindividual contactors displaced from one another by equal angles, of a magnitude such that in the axial length of the helix one revolutionis described. 1 Group -1 of the ,eontactors will, for convenience, ,be termed the rotating contactors,==as it 'is intended that they shall continuously rotate in a clockwise direction, being driven thru the spur ears 2 and 3, bymeans oi a suitable synchronous; motor, or clock, motor, acting upon the driving shaft-,4. For the case at hand, it is intended th t, the, driving shaftfi will be directlygconnected-to a suitable clock motor, and ,will rotate once every twelve hours. The ratio of the, gears 2 .and 3 isrto be suchthat'the'rotating contactors will revolvefonce for every two'revolutions of the driving shaft, or once in twenty-four hours. If twenty-four contactors are; provided, there is thereby one for every hour of the day, with the contactors displaced from one another by egual angles and each describing one revolution every twenty-fourhours.

It is to beunderstood that neither the speed of revolution of the contactors, nor their number, -is:- limited to those values just, indicated, because it is readily conceivable thatparticular purposes would justify others.

, a The second group of contactors, designated as 5, shall be termed the starting contactors be- .cause it is thru one of them and thru one of the rotating contactors that the starting operation shalltakeplace. .These starting contactors are so mounted asto be rotatable by hand, in such a. manner that any one of them may be brought into position along a certain desirable axial length of theshaft, which .,will hereinafter be indicated, and there left fI he dial 6 is provided for this purpose and it is to be noted that .a suitable scale of figures is an indication of .the location of any particular contactor. Those figures above the black guide line might be .chosen to indicate the hours from midnight untilnoon,an(1-those above the white guide line might be used, to indicate the hours from noon .until midnight. i

The third group of contactors, designated at ;'1 ,-shall be termed the stopping contactors inasmuch as it is thru one of them and thru one of the. rotating contactors thatv the stopping operation will take place. These stopping con- ,tactors are mounted in exactly the samemann'er 100 as the starting contactors, andv they may be rotated by hand by means of the dial 8. a

Reference to Figure 2 will show that the starting and stopping contactors aremounted about axialcenters diametrically opposite each other, with the rotating contactorsabout a center midway between. I The starting contactors are placed near enough the rotating'contactors so that at the circumferential point 9a slight overlap might occur between the ends of a starting tactor, which will have'a specific position alongthe axial lengths at these points. For'instance,

assume that the rotating contactor designated. One hour later the contactor 7 is at point 9. designated 8 is in place at point 9, and at a posi-'- tion in space difierent from that which the first contactor maintained, due to the helical ar There is thus provided a means for selecting the proper starting contactor into place.

As shown in Figure 2, the starting contactor '7 is in place at point 9. Assuming that the time'is six" oclock .and that the rotating contactors were properly started, then the rotating con tactor designatedfi would be at point 9, but nothing would happen because the contactors wouldnot touch each other due to their different positionin space. However, at 'Toclock the'rotating contactor 7 would have come intoposition at point9 and would touch the starting contator, thereby providing a means for completing'the starting operation.

For the stopping operation the same sort of reasoning will apply. Reference to Figure 2 will 'show'that the stopping contactor designated 8 is shown as in positionat the point 10. Nothing will happen until one hour after the starting operationhas transpired, when the rotating con;-

, "ta'ctor tywill have moved to point--10, thereby providing a meansfor achieving the stopping operation.

It will be noted that at the same time a rotating contactor and a'stopping' contactor are in position for the stopping operation, a rotating contactor may simultaneously be in position to touch astarting contactor at some circumferential point :as that indicated at 11. Such would be the case if the starting operation had occurred at 7 oclock, as shown, with the stopping'operation intended for 8 oclock. It is evident that at '8 oclock a rotating contactor and a starting contactor would be in suchrelation to each'other, at the circumferential-point 11-; as to touch. No stopping opera tion could'arise as a result, unless some means were provided. to'nullify the efiect of thestarting contactorbeing in co'ntactwith arotating contactor.- This is achieved by the provisionof a special relay which insures that once a starting oper'ation has been completed no further ac- "tion' can transpire until a stopping operation has taken place. 'Reference to Figure 4 will aid in compre- 'hending the particular action. In conjunction with such action, it will be observed from Figure'l, that battery is constantly applied to the rotating contactors, thru the brush 12 bearing 'upon a faceof the spur gear 2. K a rotating contactor is touching a starting contactor, as at point 9, there is thus provided a means for completing an electrical circuit thruthe contactors, the brush 13, the relay lugs 14 and 15, (Figure 4),"the electromagnet 16, and the lug 117, back to battery. The electromagnet 16 will exert apull upon the armature 18 ofthe-relay,

which is normally at rest against the pole piece of the electromagnet 19, and in this position is under a longitudinal compressive force due tothe action of the flat spring 20 acting thru the member 21. Under the attraction of the electromagnet 16, the armature 18 will move over against the face of the pole piece of the electromagnet 16, and will remain there because ofthe disturbance of the alignment of the compressive force acting upon 'it.

. When the armature so moves it contacts the lug 22 of the relay, and a means is thereby pro- -vided for the completion of an electric circuit thru the armature, to ground, to battery, and "to lug 22. It is further intended that the lug 22 rangement of the contactors about their shaft.

- contacted-by the armature, and to act thru the which rotating contactor may be made to contact with a starting contactor, merelyjbydialing shall be of sufficient resiliency to move, when :mann'erL-that it too will move and open the circuit thru the electromagnet 16. A As -a result; no current will' flow thru the electromagnet 16' until. the armature has been re-. turned to normal by action of the electromagnet 19. This electromagnet 1 9 maybe energized as the result of a' stopping contactor touching a rotating contactor therebyclosing an electrical circuit from battery, thru the 'contactors, the brush23, the" relay lug-24, (Figure 1), the electromagnet 1'9, and the relay lug- 17 back-to battery. r v It is obvious that only aportion of the many 'forms in which this invention may beembodied have been discussed herein, and it is to be unde'rst'ood that the invention is not limited to those specifically indicated but may readily be employed-in variousmanners without departing from the spirit of the inv'n'tion'or the scope ofthe appended claims. i

Having thus described this invention, I claim and desire'to protect by Letters Patent:

of'contact fingers mounted on the respective shafts for engagement when alined therebetween, each of said contact fingers being-displaced both angularlyand axially from the others on the same shaft.

2. A time switch comprising a pair ofmanually rotatable {contactasse'mblies, ea'ch comprising 1 a shaft having aplurality of contact fingers mounted thereon and angularly and axially displaced from each other, and a third contact assemblyof similar character mounted therebec tween, said third assembly being adapted for rotation by a clock mechanism and positioned to engage with said first mentioned pairat phases of its rotation determined by their respective manuallyseleet'ed positions. 1

3. A 'time switch comprisinga' pair of manually rotatable contact assemblies, each comprising a shaft having a plurality of contact fingers mounted thereon and angularly andaxially displaced from each'other, a third contact assembly of similar character mounted therebetween, said third assembly being adapted for rotation by a 'clock' mechanism and positioned to engage" with said first mentioned pair'at phases of itsrotation determined by their respective manually selected positions, and means actuated by the engagement ofsaid third assembly with one of said pair to connect the other of said'pair for operation.

4. A' time switch comprising a plurality of parallel "contact assemblies, each comprising a bythe respective manually selected positions of said other assemblies, and means actuated by the engagement of said clock rotatable assembly with one of said other assemblies for connecting a second of said assemblies for operation.

W. GILMAN SNYDER, JR. 

